


Fame

by stephanericher



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Other, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 21:12:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7656895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stephanericher/pseuds/stephanericher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe he can get Tatsuya to blow off work and stay home with him; maybe they can go meet Alex and drag her back here too and have a lazy day at home together the way they so rarely get to; maybe they’ll fall asleep at three in the afternoon and then go play basketball when they wake up and it’ll be the perfect birthday.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fame

Alex is already gone when the alarm rings; her space on the bed is cold and Taiga has to double check the time to make sure the clock’s actually been set right before he slams the snooze button. Tatsuya rolls over, curling into Taiga’s chest and wrapping his arms around Taiga’s waist. His hair is rumpled from sleep and he’s clearly not ready to get up. He nuzzles Taiga’s neck and then sighs, as if he’s going to fall right back into the dream he’d just left.

“Happy birthday, Taiga.”

Oh, right. Taiga almost groans; he doesn’t necessarily want to be another year older (well, it’s really another day but it’s the symbolism of it all) although he supposes being younger than Tatsuya and Alex he has no right to talk.

“Thanks.”

Tatsuya laughs, and even muffled it’s a nice sound—and it’s his birthday, so fuck it. Maybe he can get Tatsuya to blow off work and stay home with him; maybe they can go meet Alex and drag her back here too and have a lazy day at home together the way they so rarely get to; maybe they’ll fall asleep at three in the afternoon and then go play basketball when they wake up and it’ll be the perfect birthday. He kisses Tatsuya’s ear, his neck; he starts to play with the waistband of Tatsuya’s boxers and grind against him and Tatsuya wraps his legs around Taiga—and then he pushes back against Taiga’s chest. Taiga whines; maybe he can get away with stealing one more kiss (or two) but that’s still not enough and he’s about to suggest that they just take the whole day off before Tatsuya places a finger on his lips.

“Don’t forget; you have that writers’ brunch today.”

This time Taiga actually groans, slumping down to the bed and relaxing his grip on Tatsuya. He’d forgotten all about that; when his agent had set it up he’d said it was fine even though it was on his birthday; the local basketball writers are going to give him some award (which makes no sense because he’s not even a writer in the first place) and it didn’t sound like too much of a pain but that had been a month ago and today had seemed so far away.

“I won’t go; I want to stay with you.”

“Taiga,” Tatsuya says, voice measured like baking powder leveled off by the top of the box. “I have work. You have a job, too.”

Taiga wants to retort that going to some banquet and making nice with a bunch of people who are probably going to tweet everything he says isn’t his job at all (it’s just to play basketball, okay) he can’t pretend to miss the point that much. And it is sort of his job to promote the game and his team and himself, and be gracious and support the people who support the sport, and he knows he has to take the bad with the good and all things considered he shouldn’t be complaining, but why today of all days?

“I’ll make you breakfast, okay?” says Tatsuya, briefly lacing his fingers in Taiga’s, and it just makes Taiga want him more. (If Alex was here, could they both convince him to stay?)

And then he’s out of bed and already slipping on his work clothes and by the time Taiga looks up he’s out of the room already.

* * *

He ends up driving Tatsuya to work even though it’s within walking distance and not at all on the way to the stupid studio, but Tatsuya doesn’t need much convincing anyway. Taiga puts his hand on Tatsuya’s knee the whole way there and gets a nice goodbye kiss that keeps him smiling the whole rest of the ride.

The brunch itself isn’t as horrible as he’d though, aside from having to wear a suit when the air conditioners are badly in need of a filter change (and when he has to make a stupid acceptance speech). It’s pretty dumb, but because these are mostly NBA writers and it’s the offseason so they’re all starving for news they don’t try to ask too many nosy questions about his personal life or topics he doesn’t know or care enough about. The basketball questions drag on though, like sticking your finger in a jar of honey, and in the end he almost wants them to forget and to not wish him a happy birthday but they do, anyway—and then of course they have to ask him if he’s doing anything special, and he doesn’t even have a canned answer quite ready.

“Uh,” he says. “Just spending time with the people who matter, you know.”

“Any specific people?” says one writer, and Taiga almost grimaces but remembers what Tatsuya says about letting journalists get to him (even if the guy has his microphone out and come on, these people should know when to take a break).

He shrugs. “They know who they are.”

And then, finally, blessedly, the high school star they’d invited starts bragging about his scholarship offers again. The news is hotter and he gives more interesting quotes, and Taiga takes the opportunity to pretend he’s on a tight schedule and practically runs out the door and drives off. And even though he doesn’t have to be anywhere, there’s a place he wants to go and as he drives back on the highway it starts to feel like he should have gone there hours ago.

Alex is in her usual spot at the park, teaching her usual group of kids. She’s facilitating their match, yelling out instructions to each of them on every play to pass with more confidence or lead with the other foot or not to look while they dribble, and this stuff is easy for her, even with her eyesight and as hard as it had been for her to accept this role way back when she was teaching Taiga and Tatsuya. He watches for a while from behind the fence, and maybe it’s kind of shady for a big guy in a suit and sunglasses to be looking at kids like this because one of them tugs on Alex’s arm and points and she looks up and squints at him, and he sees the moment when she’s close enough to recognize that it’s him and starts to laugh.

“Nice disguise!” she calls out.

The kids all swarm around him and beg him to play and he wants to but he’s wearing dress clothes and he’d really come to spend time with Alex, and he gives her a pleading look and for a second she looks like she’s not going to help him out but she relents pretty easily.

“He’s not exactly dressed for it,” she says. “And you guys have a game to finish.”

They go back to it, shooting him furtive glances, and he sits down on the bench next to Alex. His pinky touches hers; she smiles at him.

“Happy birthday, by the way.”

“Thanks,” he says.

The kids are shooting him furtive glances and clearly trying to show off; Alex stifles her laughter and leans slightly into him and it still feels like there’s miles instead of inches between her head and his shoulder and what does it matter if these kids know, anyway? (So they already know about her and Tatsuya, so what? He’d been pretty oblivious to that kind of thing as a kid himself in the first place, so who’s to say they can’t pass most of it off as platonic anyway?) He sighs. Alex nudges his hand.

She tells the kids they’re ending early today because she and Taiga have things to do, and she’s being vague enough that Taiga has to wonder what exactly she means (and struggle not to think of anything inappropriate).

“Things?” he asks as the kids start to disperse.

“Grocery shopping.”

“Mm.”

Taiga doesn’t mind; shopping for his own birthday dinner means he gets to be extra picky about the ingredients, what brand of chocolate to use in the cake and exactly which vegetables to buy, and he gets to make more-than-incidental contact with Alex’s hand when he’s passing her things which shouldn’t be a victory at all. And he gets angry all over again when he sees a group of teenagers gawking at him and he hears them say his name and all he wants to do is hold his girlfriend’s hand in the supermarket (they’re already shopping together, and isn’t that every bit as suggestive?) without everything turning into a shitshow. The shutters of the kids’ phone cameras are loud; they grate against his eardrums like a nail file. Taiga shoves his hands deeper into his pockets.

“You okay?” Alex says.

He shrugs.

“Let’s go,” Alex says, and she’s not the type to tell him that they’ll stop or to ignore them and, right now, this is enough.

Her hand rests on his knee when he drives home.

* * *

At least in the house he can cling to Alex and complain about the stupid fans and stupid journalists and stupid work while she’s cutting vegetables for the salad.

“I don’t know why Tatsuya lets you do that.”

“Do what?”

“Cling to him the way you’re clinging to me right now.”

Taiga hugs her tighter, burying his nose in the back of her neck. Alex always smells so good, clean like laundry detergent and fresh grapes. Tatsuya’s still not home (his workday is way too long even if those hours are supposedly standard), but if Taiga was hanging off Alex like this when he was he’d tell Alex to humor him (well, probably—maybe). Alex just sighs when Taiga refuses to get off.

“He’ll be home soon.”

“I know.”

He stretches out the syllable, and he’s aware how much like a whiny kid he sounds, but he doesn’t really care. And then he hears it, the turn of the key in the lock and the pace of footsteps on the floor and there’s Tatsuya, holding out a bouquet of tiger lilies (which started out as a stupid joke but Taiga’s grown all too fond of them).

“Happy birthday.”

Taiga lets go of Alex and takes the flowers, giving Tatsuya a quick kiss before finding them a vase. Tatsuya’s all set to join Alex with the preparations, and it’s kind of cute to watch them work in half-synchronicity, occasionally bumping into each other as they add things to the bowl and laughing, matching each other’s cutting rhythm. And as if they can sense him watching, as if they’d somehow planned this, they turn around simultaneously and grin at him. Taiga grins back.

He hugs Tatsuya around the shoulders and closes his eyes, and Alex mutters something about taking advantage and discomfort.

“It’s not so bad,” Tatsuya says. “Pepper, Taiga?”

Taiga nods. Tatsuya places a piece on his tongue; it’s sweet with just the right undertones, the way he likes it best. Alex laughs, and Taiga opens his eyes. He’s reaching for her hand, resting at the edge of the cutting board; so is Tatsuya at the same time. She turns it over so both of them are touching the edge of her palm and then squeezes; it’s awkward but it works, and they’re all connected.

**Author's Note:**

> hbd taiga~


End file.
